Introduction to Genre Studies

Catalog description

Genre Studies offers insight into how language, power, and culture work in the texts we see and write every day, from graffiti and shopping lists to email and academia. This course focuses on how scholars have used genre as a productive category of inquiry, with specific focus on rhetorical analysis, composition theory, and the teaching of writing. We will use scholarly texts to explore the history and flexibility of various genres chosen by students in our course. We will analyze genre as a source of creativity and innovation, as well as a technology of social control and change, as we challenge and advance our understanding of how genres act within our own lives. Fulfills: AOK 2 & 5.